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Josef Chromy Wines was a popular destination for patrons at the Melbourne Good Food and Wine Show on the first weekend of June. As usual, Dave was hiding a few bottles of the ZDAR Pinot Noir behind the counter for tasting by those in the know! If you missed out in Melbourne, Josef Chromy Wines will be at the Sydney Good Food and Wine Show on 5-7 August. Remember, behind the counter...

VIN Diemen 2016 Melbourne & Sydney

The VIN Diemen showcase of premium Tasmanian wine, beverages, food and tourism offerings returns to Melbourne on Sunday 21 August and Sydney on Saturday 27 August. Josef Chromy Wines will be on hand along with other premium Tasmanian wine producers to show you what all the fuss over Tasmanian wine is about. Standby for special offers for our Josef Chromy Wines - Wine Club Members, and come along for a day of wine, food, and if 2015 is anything to go by, some great Tasmanian entertainment. Tickets on sale now!

When couples set a wedding date it is usually sometime from November through to March in Tasmania.

Interestingly winter weddings are starting to become more and more popular for a number of different reasons and we have come up with three great reasons why you should consider a winter wedding.

1. Ambience

With the nights drawing in, you can start your evening celebrations earlier, which means you have longer to enjoy it! Theme your venue and get the atmosphere going from the moment dusk sets in. You could use fairy lights to create a magical scene by placing them in the exterior trees and use candles to light walkways outside and if your budget stretches to it.

2. Save Money

Choosing a winter wedding date gives you more bargaining power with your suppliers. Winter tends to be a less busy time of year so you will find more availability and suppliers are keen to negotiate. For example, Josef Chromy Wines offers you (if you book your wedding between May – September)complimentary room hire and complimentary ceremony, valued at $2,000.00.

3. More Availability

If you have set your heart on a venue or if you are getting married at fairly short notice you will find it much easier to get your dream venue in winter.

Hope you found these three great reasons to consider a winter wedding helpfuland please share with us any of your own experiences.

... it was 2005. It wasn’t that long ago, but seeing as everyone is getting excited about the new Star Wars movie, I thought we would jump on the bandwagon.

So what was happening in 2005? Well Saddam Hussein was still alive, there were some appalling riots in Cronulla, Hurricane Katrina led to devastation in New Orleans, one billion less people inhabited the Earth, iPhones did not exist, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston got divorced and John Farnham was in retirement.

It was also the year that we bottled our 2005 Zdar Vintage Sparkling. So while the events of the past ten years have been going by (for better or for worse) this wine has been happily sitting in our cellars on lees under 7 bar of pressure, maturing and building toasty complexity, waiting to be unleashed on the world. You can read how these wines are made from our blog post back in October 2014 HERE.

Only 380 bottles of this wine have been made, and we don’t imagine they will be around for very long. The wine displays all the classic hallmarks of late disgorged sparkling wines. Toasty yeast complexity and a rich creamy palate, and with the vineyard’s signature citrus acidity running through the middle.

These are the wines that Tasmania excels at producing, as anyone who attended Effervescence 2015 could attest to.

We will be releasing the 2005 ZDAR Sparkling to our Gold and Silver Club Members first, and then available to all wine club members. If you are interested in purchasing please send us an email: info@josefchromy.com.au

Couples planning their wedding receptions are now spending time and money on theming their special day. Gone are the days when your effort went into choosing the food, beverage and entertainment…styling (theming) is now becoming the norm.

Table centrepieces can really help create and bring out the theme in your wedding and allow you to inject your own personalities into the décor. When you think about it during a sit-down wedding reception guests spend a fair bit of their time seated at the table so your centrepieces will definitely get noticed and admired.

Here are 10 great tips to help you choose a wedding centrepiece

Keep records of wedding table centerpiece ideas that you see in books, magazines, online and at other weddings to help you with your design. And if you haven’t already or setup a page on Pinterest.

Wedding table centerpieces should be designed with the shape of the wedding table in mind. For example, a round table will suit a single floral design placed in the centre, but a rectangular table will suit a number of smaller floral displays of varying sizes running down the centre.

The size of the table centerpieces for weddings is important – too small and they can be overlooked, and too large for the table can cause a problem with restricted viewing for guests.

Low wedding centerpieces will ensure guests can see each other and can converse. If you must have a tall floral arrangement, then a single tall flower or branch is better to enable guests to see each other.

They should look good from any angle; so, view from all seats at the table.

Table centerpieces should complement the style and colour of the china and linen.

Keeping the design simple can not only keep the cost down but also, they tend to be more elegant.

So spring is here, and as the name suggests, the vineyard is ready to spring to life. There could be some nervous moments over the next few months, as it appears we are heading into one of the strongest El Nino events in recent history. This means we are in for an extended dry spell, and the risks of major frost events are more likely. Our vineyard is generally protected from significant loss from frosts due to the air drainage from the hills, however we have lost some crop in the past, and will be on the lookout for any reoccurrence. I have generously offered our Vineyard Manager a hairdryer and extension cord from my house, so he can walk up and down the rows at 4am... he thought I was joking, however he is yet to realise that we have already spent his entire budget on oak barrels for next year, so he won’t be getting that helicopter anytime soon.

Down here in the winery we have been busy putting our last aromatic whites into bottle, whilst trying to stay warm. Some of the winery lads have resorted to wearing two pairs of socks and gloves. I suggested that they do what I did and turn the aircon up a notch, to which they were none too pleased.

One of those wines we are bottling now is the 2015 Fume Blanc. This wine is basically a Sauvignon Blanc that has been treated similarly to a Chardonnay. Our 2015 Fume Blanc was whole bunch pressed to French oak barrels, inoculated with two different yeasts, one half for fruity aromatics, the other for texture and mouth-feel, and fermented in barrel. The barrels were then stirred three times a week for two months, and then aged for a further three months prior to bottling. The stirring or bâtonage in French (things always sound more fancy in French), builds more complexity into the wine resulting in toasty, creamy and nutty characters. The result is an interesting combination of flavours. An interesting exercise is to drink a Sauvignon Blanc and a Fume Blanc from the same producer (cough cough... us...) to see the differences first hand. The Sauvignon Blanc is purely about fruit expression, while the Fume Blanc is all about the winemaker’s intervention, and shaping the wine stylistically into a different form.

There are a select number of other Tasmanian producers doing Fume Blanc’s including Frogmore Creek, Domaine A and Delamere. They are typically great value for money, and are a different take on an old favourite. We only make a small number of barrels, so it will be available through our cellar door and some limited outlets later this month. Keep an eye out.

There are 52 Saturdays in a year and in Launceston, if you plan to get married during the peak wedding season, there are only 25 Saturdays available. Have you considered Fridays as an option to get married? Not only are there another 25 dates available in the peak wedding season but there are many other reasons why Friday weddings are a fabulous option. Here are our top five:

Wedding vendors have greater availability on Fridays.

Wedding venues are more flexible with packages, timing & options on Fridays.

Friday weddings often have greater negotiation power with venues. In the case of Josef Chromy Wines our required spend to have the whole function facility is less on a Friday and we will also give you a dozen bottles of Josef Chromy NV Sparkling to use on your special day (please mention this article when booking).

Guests’ work schedules are often flexible enough to allow them to leave early on a Friday.

Many honeymoon packages start on Sunday, so the day after the wedding the bride and groom can sleep in, open gifts and visit with out-of-town guests and family.

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WARNING: Under the Liquor Licensing Act 1990 it is an offence a) for liquor to be delivered to a person under the age of 18 years (Penalty: $3,140 fine); and b) for a person under the age of 18 years to purchase liquor (Penalty: $1,570 fine)